Sakura observes as Minju eagerly snags the paint bucket while effortlessly cradling the ladder with the same arm, both supplies left out in the outer corners of the dormitory everyday for her work's continuity. 

The painter checks behind her one last time and becomes self-conscious under Sakura's watchful eyes, but otherwise waves a hand (which Sakura returns with a cheeky grin) before disappearing behind the building.

“Sakunie.”

Sakura instinctively follows the familiar voice from behind and is not at all surprised to find Wonyoung before her, standing a few feet away. The girl takes a moment to gander at her longingly before dramatically shortening the gap between them, shuffling her feet up for a hug. 

“Woah there, giant.” Sakura coughs out 

“I missed you.” 

“Do you now?” 

Wonyoung releases her petite body with a sullen face. 

“I see you're still as mean as ever.”

“I see that nasty habit of yours is still as strong as ever.” Sakura shakes her head with a grin, referring to the girl’s puss-in-boots type of pout. 

“Only learned from the best.” Wonyoung laughs, sticking her tongue out childishly to end it. 

Sakura’s face softens upon taking a closer look at the younger girl. Her signature long hair has further extended down to her lower derriere; baby-fats long gone and replaced with a slimmer face and body but a well-sculpted figure overall that is not deprived of nutrition, nonetheless. 

Even just a year could change a person drastically, she thought. 

Wonyoung had matured beautifully. 

“Let’s get you inside, maybe you can wake Yushin up with me.” 

Unable to hide her excitement, she hooks an arm around Sakura’s left one, the latter then leading her through the large double doors, giving the younger girl small playful jabs with the elbow from time to time. 

They both stand by the targeted room's doorway moments later, baffled. The bed had been made, the study area de-cluttered, the curtains were also parted nicely for an aesthetic touch to let the sunlight radiate around the room and lastly... no Yujin. 

Sakura checks the bedside table where Yujin would toss her car key aimlessly. And indeed the key still sits in the same spot as before, untouched. 

Dubiously putting two and two together, Sakura takes this opportunity to have some time with Wonyoung.

“She must be getting her breakfast somewhere nearby. How about we wait for her here?”

“That's fine. I’ve cleared out my schedule for today, I got time.” Wonyoung shrugs and helps herself to the bed, plopping on it face-first to feel its softness before sitting up with her legs crossed and her back leaned against the headboard. 

Sakura takes a step forward to close the door behind her but doesn't leave her current spot after that. Her thoughts suddenly digging deep. 

After a brief moment, she musters up a few words of sincerity. 

“I’m sorry that I couldn’t be of much help when you contacted me-” 

“Don’t be. I knew I’d be putting you in an uncomfortable position if I asked you where Yujin was. Thought your dad was an easier go-to for it.” 

The older girl smiled, the silent apology not completely leaving her system just yet. 

Wonyoung sees this and assures with soft eyes. 

“If I asked you directly, you wouldn’t be able to lie. Then you’d end up in a row with Yujinie because she never wanted to get found. I know you two, we basically grew up together-- just in case you forgot.” 

Sakura surrenders with a light chuckle. Wonyoung always had her way with everything, in many good ways. Most of the time before, she was the peacemaker, as Sakura and Yujin always started the ripples of trouble ninety percent of the time. 

Though at most, their arguments were mild and resolved no later by the end of the day while playful brawls were more common. 

"Taking a trip down memory lane? You must miss me then." Wonyoung beams at her, grabbing her attention back.

"Very much so. Though you never contacted me much." 

"I... needed to keep my promise, to stay away. Talking to you is like talking to Yujin-- I'll constantly be reminded of her, in that sense. It was selfish of me to do especially to you, and I do apologize for it."

"Such trivial thing to apologize for." 

In Sakura's world, this simply meant "I'm alright, so don't worry about it." And Wonyoung smiles understandingly, completely used to the girl's habits of always trying to lighten up the mood as much as she can. 

"I needed to distract myself or I won't be able to hold back. Eventually, I got so busy with more modeling gigs I didn't need to try so hard." Wonyoung chuckles. There was a sense of reproach in her voice, almost as if she'd been ridiculing herself for her past actions.

Sakura nods, quietly taking in the girl's careful words. She have yet to fully understand what really went down. 

She'd tried to get something out of Yujin before, but the girl seemed to have already decided in shutting things down. Sakura did manage to get bits and pieces of it, but they were very vague.

Sakura contently made do with just receiving "Distance isn't our thing. The decision was mutual, don't worry about it." Or, on a good day once, Yujin had opened up to her casually and said "She had to choose. And I respected it like an idiot." 

Vague. Everything was. But she respected Yujin enough to not poke around it any further. 

"You know I wouldn't dare to force an answer out of you. But you're here now, opening up to me like this. This changes everything." 

Wonyoung nods knowingly and braces herself for Sakura's next choice of words.

"I just wonder, really. You did everything you could to move on, give Yujin space and all of that. So what changed?" 

"Regret." She breaths out but pauses momentarily as she tries to contain herself by looking down, her palms paling from gripping on the sheets unconsciously. A natural reaction, but she inwardly scoffs at such actions.

Even more now that she's felt something wet blurring her crosshair. 

Realizing that the girl was on the verge of crying, Sakura opens to suggest it was enough, that she didn't need any further details. 

But Wonyoung battles it out and quickly regains her composure. She looks up towards the ceiling to blink once, or twice, before facing Sakura again. This time, sitting up tall and confident, a tactic she'd gotten from her job as it helped her get some boost of courage. 

"Regret. I've felt it the moment I arrived in Paris. But I couldn't bring myself to take back my word. The damage was already done." 

Sakura sighs and takes the space across Wonyoung. Both of her arms come up to thumb away the tears that did spill out of the girl, albeit faintly. 

"Silly girl. Even the biggest promises could be conditionally broken if it meant mending a hurting heart." 

Satisfied with clearing the girl's face of any traces of sadness, Sakura smiles reassuringly. Wonyoung was at a loss for words, despite wanting to say more.

But Sakura saves her some energy, completely comprehending what Wonyoung had been wanting to say and hear. 

"You're here to tell Yujin that you wanted to start over. And that's okay." 

"This is not okay." 

Minju mutters to herself, her vexed eyes roaming around the quarter half of the building's surface. The shading was not balanced at all, what with the rest of the wall she's done so far having a darker coat in contrast to it. 

To put things simply, the blending . And she's perplexed at the fact that she didn't notice such big discrepancy until today. 

Minju scorns at herself. She could be totally childish and blame it all on that person for taking up space in her mind lately, leaving her to be distracted with her own work.

But Minju won't resort to such a thing, she was bigger than that. If anything, it's her own fault for letting the distraction win her over. 

"Minju." 

She nearly choked on her own spit while her knees give out tragically in reaction to the sudden intrusion. One that she thought she'd never get so soon from the distraction herself. 

A sharp shriek fills the mid-afternoon air, as Minju finally loses her footing and twists her right ankle in the process before falling off the ladder. 

In that split second, her only thought was that if her life was to end this way, her eulogy would definitely sound just as pathetic as her death. 

"Here lies Kim Minju. An eighteen year old who slipped to her death from painting an all-girls dormitory building. May she rest in peace."

She braces herself for a pain greater than what her right ankle is already experiencing, but instead she hears a curt groan and feels arms curling around her back before feeling the ground completely. 

Minju cracks one eye open and sighs in relief that she hasn't woken up in heaven just yet. Yujin groans once again from underneath her, coughing out dry air. Minju panicks to this and urges herself to get up right away in fear of further crushing the girl. 

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry are you oka--" Her speech was cut off short from the immense pain shooting up her right leg. Minju manages to let herself land right next to Yujin successfully. 

"Don't move." Yujin firmly retorts. She ups herself swiftly, as if to show Minju that she was completely fine, before reaching out to hook the girl's right arm around her neck. 

"H-hold on, what are you--" 

"Just sit still." Yujin ignores the surprised mutters from the girl and hoists her whole body up carefully. 

Minju thins her lips and holds back a scream from the sharp pain caused by the motion. She doesn't have a choice but to leave the rest to Yujin this time. 

Clearly seeing the injured girl's scrunched up face, Yujin halts in her plan to start moving. She catches her breath once, ignoring Minju's questioning stare, then proceeds to bend down to scoop the girl up in one motion. 

Minju yelps, not for the fact that her ankle was getting dangled painfully, but because of Yujin's impulsive action. 

Not that she's complaining. 

Yujin, in her nonchalance, strides without any difficulty to the nearest bench-- thank god there was one-- by the backyard garden just a few feet away and cautiously puts the girl down to sit. 

"Stay here and don't try to move anywhere. I'll go get my keys--" Yujin's sentence is cut short by Minju's sudden grip on her wrist, the girl not returning eye contact as her eyes remain on the ground. 

Minju seems to have mumbled something, but Yujin could not catch the context of it, and so she leans slightly to ask. 

"What is it?" 

Minju looks up this time, her face displaying discomfort but she was otherwise more flustered at what she's about to say next. 

"Stay with me." 

Author's note: Surprise! I may have been a little too excited to update so soon, but I thought I'd update while my mood is great. There's definitely more to come, so look forward to it. Enjoy, my lovely readers ❤